The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.
To control costs, organizations audit the usage of their peripheral devices, such as printing and imaging devices. The devices include printers, scanners, photocopiers, and facsimile machines. The functionality of these devices may be combined into one device, called a multifunctional peripheral, or an MFP. To secure its systems, organizations limit access to their peripheral devices by employing certain security measures.
In a prior approach, for example, a student would use a campus card that contains identifying information about the student to gain access to the operations and resources on a school's peripheral devices. The campus card would contain static identifying data stored on a magnetic stripe. A student typically inserts the card into a card reader that is attached to the peripheral device, and the student is authenticated by a user identification and a password that are entered by the student into a console or keypad.
Under the prior approach, because the campus card contains only static data, and has no storage or processing capability, any operation that requires processing would need to be executed by another device. For example, a personal computer that is coupled to the peripheral and the card reader may be used to audit and manage the usage of the peripheral's operations and resources, or to provide more sophisticated forms of user authentication, such as digital certificate authentication.